1. (a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scooter provided with hand and foot braking mechanism, and more particularly to one with said mechanism applied to a rear wheel of the scooter that can be operated either by hand or by foot to brake the scooter.
2. (b) Description of the Prior Art
The prior art of a braking mechanism for the scooter is either provided with the handle for hand braking or with the rear wheel for foot braking. Hand braking is easy to apply, but in poor efficiency since it takes to glide for a certain distance before stopped the scooter. The reason is that it takes a certain lag of time before executing the braking as it is activated at the distal end of the braking wire. As for the foot braking, it provides fast braking. However, as the foot braking is executed by stepping on the braking mechanism by one""s heel and it is difficult to maintain braking due to the instantaneous inertia from the braking will push the rider to lean forward. As a result, the scooter may move forward immediately after the braking to put the rider in danger. The hand braking is efficient in the course of frequent operation during deceleration while the hand braking works better in case that immediate braking is desired. However, in practical use, both fashions are required in emergency and the prior art appears to fail to meet this need.
A hand/foot braking mechanism as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,044 claims to serve its purpose. If fact, it does not solve those problems as disclosed above because that the foot braking is provided at the front end of the frame and activated by the distal end of the braking wire as does by the ordinary hand braking, meaning, a lag of time exists between application of band or foot braking and when the scooter is actually stopped.
The primary purpose of the present invention is to provide a hand/foot braking mechanism for a scooter that functions to immediately stop the scooter either by hand or foot braking. To achieve the purpose, the braking mechanism comprises a frame, a braking plate, a linkage and a braking wire. The rear end of the frame is pivoted to rear wheel, a pivot penetrating through a return coil is inserted through a pipe holder provided at the rear end of the braking plate before the braking plate is pivoted to where close to the rear end of the frame, keeping a certain spacing from the rear wheel as long as the braking is not applied. Said braking plate related to a flat portion having its front end curved to form an arc portion and its rear end provided with a pipe holder to accommodate the pivot. A pair of wings respectively extends from both sides of the upper end of the arc portion with each wing attached with a piece of felt at its inner side. One hole is provided in the flat portion of the braking plate for the braking plate to be fixed to the linkage with a bolt and a nut Said linkage related to an arc portion having it upper end curved to form a plane provided with a hole, and another hole is provided at the lower end of the arc portion to restrict the braking wire to pull the linkage. The bolt penetrates through the hole in the flat portion of the braking plate and the hole in the linkage to be fixed by the nut and to connect the linkage and the braking plate in position. When the linkage is pulled by the braking wire in hand braking fashion, or the flat portion or the arc portion is forthwith stepped in foot braking fashion, the arc portion of the braking plate pressed down for the felt to hold against the rear wheel to execute the braking.